I recently purchased a 54 210. I have always wanted a post car and not a hard top and I finally found one that was in my price range. its a little rough but I can fix that. When I first bought it it was not known if it would run or the condition of the drivetrain. The next morning after i purchased it I went to Carquest and bought the basics to get it running (plugs, wires, battery, carb rebuild kit, wheel cylinder rebuild kits and master cylinder kit.) A few hours later she was under her own power and runs extremely well. I do need to do a valve adjustment as a valve or two are ticking lightly. I started to tear into the body work and I am still uncertain as to what color I want to go with it. I am torn between gloss black and flaking the entire car with red flake. I know I am doing to do white interior with red glitter piping and a diamond tuft pattern in areas. I need to take better pictures of the car but I figured I could share a few pictures now and keep updating as progress rolls on. The pictures are of the deck lid now after body work with the black.
I guess I could give a few more details. I want to notch the rear and bag the car all the way around. I plan on keeping almost all the trim except the badges on the hood and trunk. It has the factory 235 and 3 speed and I plan on a cam, headers and 2 pot intake soon. I also plan on doing a 12v conversion so I can power a compressor and stereo.
I ordered a few parts from Gambino today. I ordered a notch, bags and bag brackets for the rear. I will get that done and move to the front next. I want to say thank You to Alex for all the help and knowledge he is willing to offer. Great guy to do business with.
Good call on orderin parts from Gambino. Great parts from a great shop. My install was very easy. I hope yours goes well too
I just finished my front end on my coupe but its all low dollar, I made my own cups and plated my stock arms and all that, one suggestion for the front is get the dropped uprights and steering arms from Alex I had a set of fatman uprights but not the steering arms and my tow is way wacky right now. But it lays on the ground! Cant wait to see more pics.
Do you have any pictures of your setup? I am planning on ordering dropped spindles, steering arms, bags and plates from Gambino as soon as I get close to finishing up the rear. I am trying to decide what to do with the K member. I want to keep the stock pedals but I want it lower than it allows. I looked at it a while and I have a few ideas but not sure how effective they will be. I will get more pictures to show how rough the body is.
Post pics with your progress so we can watch the transformation! 54 builds are great...but I may be bias
I have had a serious addiction for these cars for a long time. I bought one when I was 16 and I am always looking for one more so I understand. I will definitely keep this thread up to date. I am trying to get all the emitions crap off my o/t diesel now and once it is out of my shop the chevy is moving in. Does anyone have any pictures of removing the wheel houses and what they did to replace or modify them? I don't want to lose my back seat so I need to be strategic on what I do. I am looking for the rear trim spears that are in descent shape for a 210 also. Mine are beat to death
I never touched mine and there is still a bit off clearance running 225/75/15 my frame is a bout 1/2 from the ground and rockers are about 2 inches off when aired out. check out my build album.
I think your car is amazing. I've looked through your build pics many many times. You did an outstanding job. I kept my chevrolet emblem on my trunk because it looks so good on your car. This car has brought me much inspiration also. What wheels are on this car? I sent the guy a PM on here asking for a few details but never received a responce.
Thank man! Im really glad I left it on, it gets alot of attention for a small (but important) detail. That 54 is Dirtbag54s ride, hes cool shit...Ive talked with him about chopping and glass work on his, super nice guy Im sure he will help you with whatever you need! Good luck and thanx again for the props !
I finally finished up my O/T truck last night so I rolled my 54 in the shop. I started by tearing in to the trunk and I removed all the junk and the rubber mat. The floor is descent but needs a little rust repair by the rockers as I suspected. I took the back seat out and cleaned the floor up a little. I started getting ready to start the suspension so I removed the U bolts and took the leaf pack apart. It is a good feeling to start digging in the suspension. Hopefully my notch comes in sometime this week from Gambino and I am waiting for him to get back to me on dropped up rights and bags for the front. Hopefully I'll have it all next week sometime.
I welded up one of my notches tonight. I also started cutting the floor out for the notch. I have the drivers side notch sitting in place to give me a refrence of where to cut the other side. The cutting will be substantial tomorrow night. I looked over my wheel wells really good tonight and I had a talk with Alex today about wheel well cutting. I realized my car has been crashed more than I thought on the drivers side because the wheel wll was dented. It has had a partial quarter graphed on at some point when lead was used for filler. I think I am going to cut the wheel well open and raise the top by giving it more rise without moving the entire wheel house up. Does anyone have any suggestions for removing he tar/rubber coating that is under the floor mat in the trunk in these cars? It seems like the waxoil they use on newer ford trucks and it is a pain in the ass to remove.
I did some serious cutting today. I have most the trunk removed for the notch and I removed the drivers side wheel well. I am going for it and making sure I can get it down. It was surprisingly easier to remove almost whole. In my other 54 I went to town with a plasma and made a ton of work for myself. I used a combination of cut off wheel and sawzall and had great results imo. I am planning a trailer fender with flat sides and I will use the stock part of the well in the interior part behind the seat to try and keep the seat. I did hit the brake line for the drivers side rear so I will have to get that replaced but had a good day cutting it up. I have pictures but I can't load it from my DROID so it will have to be tomorrow.
Just got back from vacation at lake powell and went to work on my car tonight. I got the notches welded in and the driveshaft tunnel cut out and put the tires on to see how it looks. I still need to do a little trimming on the supports for the wheel houses because they are hitting now and I have to cut a few inches farther forward in the driveshaft tunnel. I want to get the bag plates on before the week is out then I can start on the front by the weekend.
Looks good man! Im doing one too but cant post any pics yet. I just got my computer fixed finally so Iam going to update my thread soon!What rear end is in your car? How close are the wheels to the catwalk bracing? I Havent cut that much out yet and it looks like mine are gonna be real close!
I removed the k member tonight. I am going to section it down thin enough that i will not hit when aired out. I ground the rivets out and worked it with pry bars. that was a pain in the ass to remove. I am planning on bolting it back in. I hope that is strong enough. I took the drivers side front suspension apart also so I can blast everything at one time. I am pondering the idea of removing the front crossmember to blast it as well. I hope to get all the sectioning done tomorrow and get the k member bolted back in before the weekend is out. no pics. something is wrong between my phone and pc. maybe tomorrow
Hello everyone. First, I am still a newbie to forums. I am rebuilding a 53 Belair H/T, and currently working on the front suspension. Everyone is talking about Gambinos and ordering parts from there. But I can't seem to find the website. So any help with that would be appreciated. Also at this point of my rebuild I am starting to need alot of guidance as to where to locate parts. So I will be on here a little more now. Thanks to all ahead of time.
Well I have had a crazy couple of weeks. I am getting over being sick and between work and the volunteer fire department my life is crazy right now. I put the front back together and I set it down for the first time. I need 5" more drop to grag rocker. I dont understand where I am doing anything different from rustypipes tech but something is not working. I do have large tires on the front but I cant get the rest figured from calculations. I have 7" of sidewall and I need to drop 5" so I can have 2" of sidewall on a 15" rim? Thants not going to work. I checked and the control arm is touching the front crossmember. I would like to figure this out so I know what I need to cut or do to get this in order. Maybe tomorrow i will get into it. Any Ideas?
Yay for the 12V conversion (even though it's takin' away originality) but in the name of "being able to see at night" it's worth it. Good project.
Well I figured it out. I welded a plate in the bottom of the control arms to make then flat and to cover the hole I made from removing the spring pocket. I learned you can't just put the plate in flat you have to follow the factory contour built in to the control arm. I lost about 1.5" of drop from that. I cut the entire bottom out if the control arm and found an additional 1.5" of drop so I am at 3"+ drop more than I had. I re measured and I had 4.5" of ground clearance so I should be within 1-1.5" of clearance of the rocker to the ground with the 7.50-15 tires. I will be buying a set of 6.70-15 here before too long and that should bring the rockers down to the ground. I will get some progress pictures up tomorrow.
The Jalopy Journal
